Stock Banter

In premarket, at 8:06:27 I added 1/8 more EMC to my target position. Last year I sold 3/4 of my position booking an 18% long term gain. I currently hold 5/8 of my target position in EMC.

The Street Rates EMC a ‘B’ Buy stating:

We rate EMC CORP/MA (EMC) a BUY. This is driven by multiple strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover.  The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its impressive record of earnings per share growth, robust revenue growth, expanding profit margins, good cash flow from operations and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures.  Although the company may harbor some minor weaknesses, we feel they are unlikely to have a significant impact on results.

Other noteworthy facts:
Based on its gross margin, operating margin, and net margin, EMC converts a larger percentage of its revenues to profits than most other companies in the Computer Storage Devices industry.
EMC has a growth score and solvency rate better than 90% of the stocks rated by The Street.
EMC trades at a discount to its peers when looking at book value, 2.4 vs 4.24, sales 2.37 vs 2.87.
EMC operates in two business categories: EMC Information Infrastructure and VMware Virtual Infrastructure. EMC Information Infrastructure provides a foundation for organizations to store, manage, protect, analyze and secure information and enhance their advantage within traditional data centers, virtual data centers and cloud-based IT infrastructures. With 2010 revenues of $2.9bn, more than 250,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization, which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs.

EMC/VMware Market Moving News:

EMC® NEC and Intel deliver solutions for Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Testing demonstrates the search and retrieval of 108-million database objects for a 200% scalability improvement.
The configuration incorporates EMC, NEC and Intel technologies for demanding, large-scale, high growth SharePoint 2010 collaboration solutions.

VMware’s Cloud Leadership
A lot of companies have tried to compete with Microsoft and failed — Lotus, WordPerfect, Netscape and Novell all come to mind.
When Microsoft announced Hyper-V, I expected VMware suffer the same fate. The opposite has happened — VMware keeps getting stronger and stronger.

EMC to Acquire Parts of Zettapoint to Increase Software Portfolio
EMC Corp. of Hopkinton is acquiring Zettapoint Inc. of Concord, a three-year-old maker of software for improving the performance of large databases. According to a report on the Israeli news website Globes, EMC will pay $10 million for Zettapoint, which has an operation in the Israeli city of Or Yehuda. EMC already had established a strategic partnership with Zettapoint.

EMC, Midrange Storage Dominate IDC’s Spring 2011 SUDS Survey
IDC’s Spring 2011 Storage User Demand Study (SUDS) has been released and includes interesting insights on enterprise storage market trends and their preferred storage brands by usage scenario. The main takeaways – EMC dominates mindshare, midrange storage is the most favored and many are already using outsourced storage solutions.

EMC Project Lightning flash cards promised ‘this year’
Weighing in at 320GB, for starters. EMC has said that the Project Lightning flash cards will ship before the end of the year. The main reason EMC wants these caches to be under control of the disk arrays – rather than servers and their operating systems – is the same one that has been EMC’s reason for more than three decades: EMC sells storage and, like Oracle, it wants to control as much of the IT stack as it can.

EMC To Unveil Data-Analysis Products
EMC on Wednesday plans to introduce what it calls the “Greenplum Analytics Workbench,” a large-scale testing device with 1,000-plus hardware nodes and 24 petabytes of physical storage. EMC said the size is equivalent to nearly half the entire written works of mankind from the beginning of recorded history.

VMware extends social, cloud-based apps to iPad and Android‎
VMware says it is advancing its vision for the future of applications in the post-PC era with new iPad and updated Android applications from SlideRocket and …

What I sold last year:

I sold EMC at $19.25 for a 18% long term gain – still holding significant number of shares. Sold too soon.

I sold all my SLV at 27.65, 43% short term gain, but did I sell too soon? Very scary at these levels. Looking for a major pullback before considering any purchase.

I sold all my UUP in March at 27.65, good move because I got out with a 2.5% gain and now the fund is down to 22.71. I’m staying away.

I sold 200 shares of PG at $63 early on February 18th, I had a 31% short term gain on half the shares. I bought 100 shares on May 5 at $60. Gives me 200 shares total. Considering additional shares.

I sold 150 shares of RIMM on February 18th and then my remaining shares on April 26 all at an average selling price of $70.92. Good move because RIMM is trading at $58.13 right now. Looks like the stock peaked at the end of March. I have zero shares of RIMM at this time. Looks like I sold just in time.

I sold RFMD after holding the stock for just one month. If you have a 21% gain in a month, I think that might be a good time to book profits. I sold RFMD on October 28 at $7.33. Today the stock is trading for $7.35. Waiting for a pull back on this before considering.

I sold TBT at $50 on January 13, 2010 booking an 11% profit in less than 3 months. Looks like I sold just in time.

First and Last Call of 2010 was January 6

After ending last year by selling some GE for a loss (read: tax purpose)  and then buying 71 GE Calls on December 30, March 20 2010 Call 13 @ 2.94, I then sold those calls on January 6 @2.70, netting me $3072 in one week. But that scared the crap out of me. The call-put prices are so volatile, it seems like a crap shoot. That was the last call I bought in 2010, and I didn’t buy or sell any puts either.

At 10:52:14 on 09/01/10 I sold nearly half my shares of EMC at $19/share due to a Professional Research report finding and current market volatility.

While I am selling 600 shares, I am keeping 700 shares which I picked up at a much lower cost than the shares I am selling. I am still holding these EMC shares:

200 06/26/08 16.0499 3,209.99 Long-term
100 06/27/08 14.8499 1,484.99 Long-term
200 07/09/08 13.0499 2,609.99 Long-term
200 07/16/08 12.58 2,515.99 Long-term

This sale will allow me to reinvest in other high dividend paying stocks as outlined in previous post, The Dividend Play.

Professional Research on EMC Corporation and Quantum – A Roller Coaster Ride for Data Storage Stocks this Quarter

The data storage and devices industry is showing mixed results recently, and quarterly earnings have been up and down. EMC Corp. which reported its financial results back in July saw its profits grow two-fold to $426.2 million due to corporations’ willingness to spend on data storage. While there has been some positive news due to businesses increasing their information technology budgets, profit margins for some companies in the industry have decreased due to an increase in production costs. Another problem or boon, depending on how companies adapt to the marketplace, is the strong emergence of cloud computing. Source: Market Wire

While I am selling 600 shares, I am keeping 700 shares which I picked up at a much lower cost than the shares I am selling. I am still holding these EMC shares:

200 06/26/08 16.0499 3,209.99 Long-term
100 06/27/08 14.8499 1,484.99 Long-term
200 07/09/08 13.0499 2,609.99 Long-term
200 07/16/08 12.58 2,515.99  Long-term

This sale will allow me to reinvest in other high dividend paying stocks as outlined in previous post, The Dividend Play.

Targeted for sale are MSFT, EMC

I won’t sell my entire position but in the case of MSFT I have 150% of my planned purchases, which means I overbought MSFT. Looking to sell MSFT at $35, EMC $25, INTC at $29

Thank god I did not short PALM, I never saw HP as a suitable suiter and this will put some pressure on MSFT because of WebOS they get with the acquisition.

I might pickup some apple on a pullback around $200 if they ever get their, otherwise I will stay away from AAPL.

I own Google and will hold till it gets over $300
I own QCOM, still holding with no target sales price at this time.
I own a small position in LSI (since 2005) with no target sales price either.

I will be keeping an eye out for some tech value plays and takeover targets. Some tech stocks I am currently studying include TELT, OVTI, RSYS and others.

Also check out these tech microcaps: http://www.smallcapcenter.com/category/technology/

I believe in EMC and VMware. Clearly the future of storage of many companies because EMC & VMware can provide solutions for IP Storage-iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel protocols. video: EMC’s Chad Sakac, senior director VMware strategic alliance discusses where each protocol fits and their unique capabilities in the VMware environment.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO46FyxGf3M]

Credit Suisse, The Street.com, have outperform and buy ratings on the stock. Here is my take:

1. EMC reported 4th quarter 2009 earnings of $0.33, beating the consensus estimate of the 35 analysts covering the company by 8.55%.

2. This positive surprise is particularly noteworthy because the guidance for the quarter had risen 25.00% in the year leading up to the announcement, and yet the company was still able to better the number.

3. analysts earnings estimate is $0.24 per share, a 50.00% increase over the prior year 1st quarter results.

I currently am holding 3/4 of my target position for EMC. As the stock increases in the next few months, I will consider selling another 25% of my holdings. But today, at this point, I’m sitting tight on EMC.

After their earnings announcement on April 21, I will consider a selling price. Until then, I will be monitoring EMC news about projected earnings number, which is currently estimated to be $0.21 to $0.27 cents per share.  Surely EMC will beat that eps, but by how much?

That’s why I rate EMC a hold.

I am taking some gains off the table on EMC, great runnup from $12.58 which was my last buy of EMC. Still holding 3/4 of my target allocation of EMC.

I am considering exiting additional shares at $20.

There seems to be little incentive to buy the market for possibly the rest of the year. I have sold MSFT, EMC, POT, and raised my cash position to approx 1/3 of the Beaglefolio.

Charles Schwab says it will likely take another year for the average investor, looking for confidence in jobs and the economy, to get back in the market.

I have concerns about the health of the economy. Josh Kosman, author of “The Buyout of America,” tells David Weidner we’re due for another financial crisis and private equity will be at the center of it.

Its not that I believe that the stock market is about to crash, again. But you cannot deny, stocks are down, bonds are up, emerging markets are being hit and safe havens are back in fashion.

There are allot of exciting products out there that can drive some tech stocks. Despite that Motorola’s new Droid phone is no iPhone-killer, the iPhone is under attack. Phones will be the first thing emerging markets will buy. So some tech stocks that benefit from the wireless communication industry will do well, even in a down market.

And with all this wireless communication comes data storage and distribution. That’s why i like EMC and Information innovator Teradata with its smart management, big-league client roster and unrivaled expertise in data-analysis applications. One analyst suggests that Teradata shares could jump as much as 80% over the next two years.
See Analyst Nick Hastings Video Report

In conclusion, I am looking at a straddle* on GE. Investment in BRIC, and purchase of some lowlying high quality stocks. If stocks get punished, I think there may be another ‘high quality’ buying opportunity.

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*FYI, a straddle is an investment strategy involving the purchase or sale of particular option derivatives that allows the holder to profit based on how much the price of the underlying security moves, regardless of the direction of price movement. Source: Wiki

After a big run-up, I am selling 1/4 of my EMC position. Last April I was holding on to Volitile EMC, since then the stock has risen from $12, so I am taking a bit off the table.

Interesting note, since April S&P rated the stock 2 stars, or SELL. As Jim Cramer would say, pigs get slaughtered, so I’m going to schnitzel a few shares today.

I am still holding on to 3/4 of my total position.